Multimedia effects on learning: Design implications of an integrated model

The integrated model highlights the multiple factors that have to be accounted for in explaining multimedia effects on learning. The model has implications for designers who need to be aware of at least 12 factors and their complex interactions in learner reaction to multimedia. This paper reviews the design implications of visual and auditory inputs, learner control, learner style, learner dynamics and cognitive processing. A set of guidelines for multimedia designers is proposed. Research over the past two decades has produced inconsistent results about the effects of multimedia on learning (Liao, 1999). These inconsistencies are most likely due to the fact that there are multiple factors operating as has been proposed in the integrated model of multimedia effects (Hede, 2002). The full model comprising 12 inter-related conceptual elements (most containing sub-elements) is clearly very complex (see Figure 1) and this complexity has clear implications for the design of multimedia in education. Designers need to be aware of the relationships among the many elements of the integrated model if their multimedia products are to be fully effective as learning tools. This paper reviews the major design implications of the model